Macbeth Essay
The beginning of the ‘play’ starts off with the witches and they say ‘There to meet with Macbeth’. This indicates that the witches will play a part in the ‘play’. Later they do meet up with him and Banquo. And they say ‘All hail Macbeth! Hail to thee, thane of Gamis!’ Thane of Cawdor’ ‘That shalt be king here after’. These quotes show what would happen later in the ‘play’. Macbeth will be a chief of Cawdor and Gamis. Also a king.
The main theme of the ‘play’ is mostly about power, because Macbeth and Lady Macbeth both want to be king and queen. Lady Macbeth says ‘Unsex Me’ this means by ‘Make me tougher, make me a man!’ By showing this she takes the power and says she wants to be queen to Macbeth. And as Macbeth also wants to be king so much, Lady Macbeth takes the power on being the boss and telling Macbeth what to do. ‘Leave all the rest to me’. When Lady Macbeth says this it indicates that she is beginning to plot something which will lead to Duncan’s death.
If I was putting on a production of ‘Macbeth the play’ I would use a London theatre. By using a theatre like this is would show a lot more of the play in terms of telling the story and it will be told much clearer. I would use modern dress as it will show much more detail. By doing this it will also show what happens in the play. E.g. when Macbeth is made a friend of Cawdor, by using modern dress we can dress Macbeth differently when Duncan gives him the Jewellery to say that Macbeth is now a friend of Cawdor.
At the beginning of the ‘play’, Macbeth is considered noble, brave, trustworthy and also a ferocious soldier. When Macbeth faced the slave he ‘unseamed him’. This shows how ferocious he was. This line means he had cut him up or ripped open. Showing him as noble and brave, Duncan describes him as ‘worthy gentleman’ and ‘valiant’. To show that he is trustworthy, he was a good friend with Banquo at the beginning of the play and when Duncan makes him a friend of Cawdor, he also calls Macbeth a ‘Thane of Cawdor’. This is meant as a leader and to be a leader you will need to be trustworthy and noble. And Macbeth shows all this.
Macbeth acts the way he does because he has so much guilt he cannot handle it when it is the death of Duncan and Banquo. He tries to make it look like it wasn’t him by getting the daggers used to kill Duncan from the guards, to make them get the blame. But he kills them as he doesn’t want them to stand trial and say it wasn’t them. Then when it comes to the death of Banquo, he pays a couple of his people to kill Banquo, but then in Polanskis film he orders his guards to kill them so that the killers of Banquo will not spread the word that they were paid to kill him. It is clever because it shows a little bit more detail on how Macbeth acts. And if everyone knew then it would make Macbeth guilty and a bad king. When it goes to the banquet Macbeth sees the ghost of Banquo and he is starting to get scared, this is the start of when he starts to have no feelings.
Macbeth shows his guilt after the death of Duncan. When he comes out of the room him holding the two daggers and blood stained hands, he said ‘Sleep no more!’ Macbeth shall sleep no more!’ This meant he will not be able to sleep as he has so much guilt in him by killing Duncan.
He shows no feelings when he hears the death of Lady Macbeth. He says ‘she should have died hereafter’ ‘There would have been a time for such a word’ All this shows him having no feelings, he didn’t cry, he wasn’t sad, he just says there ‘would have been time’. This shows he has started to begin to show no fear in anything or any feelings.
The scene that I found most effective was the scene of the death of Duncan. This was the most effective, showing Macbeth’s turning into a bad person. As he sees the dagger he wants to grab it but he can’t as it is an illusion. He then says ‘proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?’ In this line he thinks he is getting a fever and is now starting to feel not himself. This is the beginning of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth changing over the ‘play’. At Duncan’s death Macbeth comes out holding the two daggers and is very scared of what he has done. Macbeth says ‘Macbeth does murther sleep!: the innocent sleep!’ This means Macbeth has murdered someone innocent in their sleep and he is now starting to regret it. When Lady Macbeth comes back out she says ‘My hands are of your colour; but I shame to wear a heart so white’. This means she would be ashamed to be a coward.
The audience thinks of Macbeth as a traitor but also have a bit of understanding for him. As Malcolm is now Prince of Cumberland. Macbeth says ‘this is a step on which I must fall down’. This means that he needs to go down that path to get where he wants to be. Even though he has committed murder we the audience may give him a bit of empathy as they know how he is feeling inside, by him being bossed around by Lady Macbeth to get her in the position she is in the ‘play’.
As we know Macbeth may have been a ‘dead butcher’ but has showed us that he more than that when he died in the ‘play’. But he has been led into most of this killing from Lady Macbeth and him and his mind guiding him to all of this.